LITTLE ROCK To put the success of his football team into perspective during an appearance before the Little Rock Touchdown Club on Monday, University of Central Arkansas coach Clint Conque used the Texas State model.
Texas State is the largest school in the Southland Conference with more than 30,000 students. Then named Southwest Texas State, it won back to back NCAA Division II national championships in 1980 and 1981 under its legendary coach Jim Wacker. It moved to then NCAA Division I-AA (the next season). It has had only six winning seasons since 1982 and only one playoff appearance.
"What our young people have been able to accomplish and what our coaching staff has done has been borderline miraculous," he said. "We've had three straight winning seasons in Division I (Football Championship Subdivision). And if we have our way Saturday, we'll have an outright conference championship and a (probable) national top-10 finish. I so hope for our school we can get that because the benchmark now is really, really high."
The Bears (9-2, 5-1) have at least a one game lead over everyone in the SLC. A victory over McNeese State on Saturday will clinch first place in the standings. Because of an NCAA ruling announced last week relating to UCA being playoff ineligible during its transition to NCAA I, the Southland Conference cannot recognize the Bears as official conference champions.
That will not prevent Conque or UCA officials from calling it a championship if the Bears defeat McNeese State. Conque reiterated his view that championships should be won on the field.
"I told the players after our win over Stephen F. Austin on Saturday that for once, I want them to put their selflessness aside and be greedy," he said. "Let's win the whole damn thing and leave no doubt (about the real champion). Within 10 seconds, the mood in our locker room went from euphoric celebration to 'let's get on the bus and go back to work because there is more to get done.'"
In answer to questions he has had, Conque emphasized that the Bears' being ineligible for official recognition of a conference championship was not the result of anything the school had done wrong.
"I'm not gonna play the blame game and to tell the truth, nobody anywhere really did anything wrong," he said. "Our commissioner (Tom Burnett) has been proactive in supporting UCA and we thought we had done all the appropriate things for our move. Our players have been Division I compliant since 2006 and we're under the same standards as far as education and eligibility as the SEC, Big 12, Big 10 and any other school in Division I."
As expected, Conque singled out for praise his record-breaking quarterback, Nathan Brown, who will play the game at UCA Saturday.
"Nathan has now passed for more than 10,000 yards in his career, and I think only about 20 quarterbacks in the history of college football have done that," Conque said. "Depending on what NFL scouting report you look at, Nathan ranges from the third-best to the eighth-best senior quarterback in all of college football. That's gonna be in the eyes of the beholder."
Brown has also passed for 98 touchdowns in his career.
"The benchmarks of a great college quarterback are 10,000 yards and 100 touchdown passes," Conque said. "I know he would gladly give up two touchdown passes for a win Saturday, but I hope the game flows that way that he can get that."
He said the UCA will open with a game in Hawaii next year and treat it as a preseason bowl game. Because of the Hawaii game (outside the continental United States), he said the Bears are allowed to play 12 games next year for the second straight year. He said UCA officials are trying to make arrangements with another university in NCAA transition and ineligible for the postseason to play a game the weekend after Thanksgiving next season and treat that as a postseason bowl game.
"We will have 14 young men who came to us as true freshmen knowing they would play their whole career and not be able to play in postseason at the Division I level," Conque said. "They sacrificed to be here. Part of their reward is we taking them to Hawaii. Waikiki Beach ... and wherever else they take us."
He noted one of the secrets of UCA's quick success in Division I has been coaching stability and player development.
"We take players who might be a little short or a half-step slow for major colleges," he said. "I think our coaching staff has been able to project young people out two or three years and developed them to that standard so they could rise to the potential they have."
